Iraq: Private Ownership of Oil and the Quest for Democracy

Abstract

I argue that state-ownership and state-management of oil on behalf of the Iraqi people is not conducive to democracy and inconsistent with the principles of free market. I also argue that it can adversely affect economic development and might further impoverish the average Iraqi citizen. To resolve the problems, this note proposes a change to the “political” rules; i.e., change the Iraqi constitution, and provides an economic strategy to transfer oil wealth to the Iraqi people.